That same year, she appeared in an episode of One Step Beyond titled "The Dark Room", in which she portrayed an American photographer living in Paris. In 1960, she played Marilyn Parker, the roommate of Janice Rule's character, Elena Nardos, in the Checkmate episode "The Mask of Vengeance". In 1966, she guest starred on Perry Mason as Gloria Shine in "The Case of the Crafty Kidnapper". In late 1970, Leachman starred in one episode of That Girl as Don Hollinger's sister, Sandy.

Leachman has also won a record-setting eight Primetime and one Daytime Emmy Awards and has been nominated more than 20 times, most notably for playing Phyllis Lindstrom on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Lindstrom was a recurring character on the program for five years and was subsequently featured in a spinoff series, Phyllis (1975–1977), for which Leachman won a Golden Globe Award. The series ran for two seasons. Its cancellation was partly due to the deaths of three regular or recurring cast members during its brief run: Barbara Colby (murdered under mysterious circumstances in a Los Angeles park), and Judith Lowry and Burt Mustin (who played a newly married couple on the show; both were in their 80s and died of natural causes).[citation needed]

Leachman appeared in three Mel Brooks' films, including Young Frankenstein (1974) in which the mere mention of the name of her character, Frau Blücher, elicits the loud neighing of horses, (This was an homage to a cinematic villain stereotype. Leachman told Brooks that Blücher was German for "glue", though it is not)[18]High Anxiety (1977) as the demented villainess and psychiatric nurse Charlotte Diesel, and Madame Defarge in History of the World: Part I.

In 1989, Leachman starred on Brooks' short-lived NBC sitcom The Nutt House[19] in dual roles as head hotel housekeeper Mrs. Frick (a variation of the Frau Blücher character) and Mrs. Nutt, the senile owner of the hotel (who was only featured in the two-part pilot).

She auditioned to revive her role from Young Frankenstein in the 2007 Broadway production opposite Megan Mullally (who replaced Kristin Chenoweth) and Roger Bart. However, Andrea Martin was cast instead. Brooks was quoted as saying that Leachman, at 81, was too old for the role. "We don't want her to die on stage," he told columnist Army Archerd, a statement to which Leachman took umbrage.[20] However, due to Leachman's success on Dancing with the Stars, Brooks reportedly asked her to reprise her role as Frau Blücher in the Broadway production of Young Frankenstein after the departure of Beth Leavel, who had succeeded Martin.[21][22] The Broadway production closed before this could happen.

From 1953-79, Leachman was married to Hollywood impresario George Englund. Her former mother-in-law was character actress Mabel Albertson. The marriage produced five children, four sons and one daughter: Bryan (died 1986), Morgan, Adam, Dinah, and George. Some of them are in show business. Her son Morgan played Dylan on Guiding Light throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

The Englunds were Bel Air neighbors of Judy Garland and Sid Luft, and of their children, Lorna and Joey Luft, during the early 1960s. Lorna Luft stated in her memoir Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir that Leachman was "the kind of mom I'd only seen on TV". Knowing of the turmoil at the Garland home but never mentioning it, Leachman prepared meals for the children and made them feel welcome when they needed a place to stay.[citation needed]

Leachman was also a friend of Marlon Brando, whom she met while studying under Elia Kazan in the 1950s. She introduced him to her husband, who became close to Brando as well, directing him in The Ugly American and writing a memoir about their friendship called Marlon Brando: The Way It's Never Been Done Before (2005).[23]

In a parody of Demi Moore's famous Vanity Fair magazine cover photo, Leachman posed au naturel on the cover of Alternative Medicine Digest in 1997, body-painted with images of fruit. A vegetarian, she also posed clad only in lettuce for a 2009 PETA advertisement.[24] She starred in a comedic 2013 spay and neuter ad for PETA, opening a condom wrapper with her teeth.[25]

Leachman called herself an agnostic in an interview with Grandparents magazine.[26] In 2012, she said she was an atheist.[27]

Her autobiography Cloris: My Autobiography[28] was published in March 2009. She wrote the bestselling book with Englund, her former husband.

Leachman's granddaughter, Anabel Englund, is a singer.[29] In addition to Anabel, Leachman has five other grandchildren — Portia, Skye, Arielle, Jackson, and Hallelujah — and one great-grandson, Braden.[citation needed]